Like Stone
by Self-san
Summary: Really, what was she supposed to do? Hell if she knew. AU. Sequel to Longing Too.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Clenching her eyes closed, she melted under the stream of hot water flowing from the shower head. It hit her bruised and aching body hard, almost to the point of pain. Her scrapes and bang-ups were more numerous than normal. She kinda sorta liked it…to a degree. In sparring, both Zero and she were pushing themselves to a whole new level of hell.

Zero's vampire side was fully awakened now. And it was ready to play. Fine by her.

Zero had to be careful not to hit too hard and Sen had to be careful not to bleed. It was tough. Both of them were walking the tight line between life and death, with this game of chess. And to make it worse, she now saw Kaname every day and he sure as hell knew what was going on. He wouldn't be Kaname if he didn't.

It wasn't his fault that he didn't understand. She and Tinsel-head were such asshats to each other sometimes. Poking, jeering, taunting, and teasing on a level that was almost cruel. To any outsiders, their relationship of give and take would likely seem… sickening. Kaname certainly was angry at it the majority of the time. His chest was often a blinding mask of red-black. It pulsed and churned but was really quiet pretty.

She didn't much show it around Kaname, but by nightfall she was normally pissed beyond belief at the morons of her and Zero's class. When like that, she didn't really care to be civil to anyone, not even Kaname. She tried though, for him. To be what he saw every time he looked at her, to deserve his attention. Lonely, lonely Kaname, who looked at her with eyes that thought the world of her and who she was afraid would never really see her.

Sighing softly, she scrubbed her skin with a rough bar of soap. It was Zero's soap actually, but there was no way in hell that she was using that girly stuff the Headmaster bought her. Well, she used it on her face sometimes during winter, but there was no excuse for buying it year-round. Like those fluffy pink towels that, ultimately, Zero ended up using. She hated fluffy towels! Seriously, they didn't help you dry off at all! You could use those things for winter coats they were so thick!

Zero didn't have the same problem as her, thankfully. He used them, and didn't seemingly mind their color.

Rinsing off, she shook her head of sopping hair and stepped out of the stall, grabbing a thin towel as she did so. Wrapping up, she stepped over to the mirror. Halfway through her shower, she had turned down the heat, so it wasn't fogged. It showed a clear reflection. It almost was enough to scare her. Her dead eyes, that was.

They seemed dull, not dead really, but tired. _Maybe that was what Kaname was so concerned about. _Touching the mirror, she leaned her head against it. She snapped her eyes shut when she saw blue eyes staring back at her.

Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes again and watched as the mirror showed her a blue orb in her right socket. She sighed and knocked her head against the reflection softly, wondering what was making her see that other.

Zero opened the door without knocking. She started slightly, fingers clutching at the counter. He walked over and opened the medical closet. She tried to ignore him and reached for another small towel to dry her hair. She didn't see a point in using a hairdryer. It would only make what could be straight hair, if she slept on it, gain a soft curl. It often reminded her of Kaname's hair.

He came up behind her, reaching over her head into the mirrored cabinet to pull out his toothbrush and paste to begin cleaning his teeth. She smiled at the new brush. His teeth were such a pain in the ass. He had to buy a new once at least every two weeks.

She rubbed the towel vigorously over her hair and reached for a brush to smooth it down once she was done drying it.

She uncaringly yanked the brush through and tossed it back into its drawer. Zero was rinsing his mouth out by the time she turned to look at him, her hand holding her towel up.

"Out punk, need to get dressed for class." She said bluntly as she locked eyes with him.

He nodded solemnly and turned, ready to head out the door.

She stopped him with a hug from behind.

"You silly prick, it's your turn to shower," She said to his back while she sniffed him loudly.

He groaned and swatted at her as he spun from her grip and went to pull off his shirt.

He stopped, looking back at her.

_Does he really think that I'll leave?_ She wondered humorously.

"Uh, Z, my clothing is in here and I can't run the risk of running into Kaien again."

Zero's eye twitched and she smirked.

"Fine, fine, just don't _look_ or anything you half-pint twerp," He grumbled as she turned around.

"As if, metal-head," She said breezily, wondering if he could hear the blood rush to her face at the thought of seeing his delicious body-

She stopped, shaking her head before it went too far and he really _did_ smell her.

She heard the frosted glass door shut, the water start, and dropped her towel, pulling on her panties.

She thought she heard a bar of soap drop.

"You didn't have to be like that in front of Kuran, you know," Zero said suddenly, causing Sen to pause in pulling her comfy sleep bra over her head. She looked back briefly before continuing.

"You waited until now to talk to me about this?" She gripped well naturedly as she walked over to sit on the toilet where it sat next to the shower.

In just her underwear.

_God, was it just her, or was it getting hot? _

She felt sweat begin to slick between her small breasts as she pulled her knees to her chest. Her slightly longer hair tickled her under jaw and she brushed at it irritably.

"No other time." Zero said after a pause.

She stayed silent.

"I've just never seen you be like that around him, is all." He said defensively.

"Like what?" Sen asked dreamily, her eyes drifting shut.

"Like yourself." That comment made her sit up straight.

"They had it coming," She said scornfully, thinking of her stupid twittering classmates.

"I'm not saying they didn't," He said, placating her.

She didn't like it.

"Then what are you saying?" She asked flatly, glaring at the shower.

"I'm saying that around him you're always miss goodie-goodie-two-shoes," Zero said plainly. Almost scornfully.

It hurt.

"Am not." _Lie_.

"Since when did _you_ start lying to yourself?" He snorted.

"I don't want to talk about this." She said crossly. And really, she didn't. Zero just…didn't know what he was talking about.

He couldn't know.

He couldn't know that Kaname _hurt_. Hurt so deep inside that it made her want to curl up and _die_ sometimes when she looked at him. Couldn't know that the stress, the "prestige", of being a pureblood weighed just as heavily on him as being a level E did on Zero.

Sen frowned in frustration.

Why couldn't they both just get along? She wasn't asking them to love each other, to care for each other, or hell, even _like_ each other. All she was asking was that they didn't pull the macho shit when they were around her. But no, that was all they ever did. Both concerned that the other would steal her away like she was a doll and they were competitors in their own little sand box.

Did it matter that she could make her own choices? No.

Did it matter that the thought of choosing between them was tearing her in half?

Didn't they know that she knew she would have to choose?

Why did they have to keep shoving the obvious on her?

Why couldn't she just…

_What, have a heart of bone? _

She jerked upright from her slump to the voice ringing in her head. After so long, she had almost forgotten it was there.

And as she began to get a headache, she wondered if Z-

"Ehem," He said loudly, peeking around the door at her.

She jumped of the toilet faster than water could drip off his soaking head, hurried to the door, and exited the bathroom.

She tossed back a quick, "sorry Zero!" before slamming her back against the wall beside the bathroom and sliding down to sit on the floor.

Her heart beat like a hummingbird in her throat and she shuddered.

The cool tone of the voice and the real question Sen could hear in it shook her deeply.

But she didn't know the answer. She _couldn't_ know the answer.

And the voice didn't seem to like that at all.

.

_A/N:_ For those of you who want to know what happened between Kaname and Sen, drop me a review or something otherwise I won't bother posting it. 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: This goes out to Auditory Eden, who is the only one who wanted to know more about the conflict. Oh, and I certainly don't claim to own anything about this series nor do I plan to make any money off of this.

Growling, she clenched her fist and gritted her teeth. The headache that she had been developing all day burst into reality when confronted with the enormous, pulsing mass of screaming teenaged stupidity that stood before her. Their bright colors hurt her eyes and made her squint at them.

She tried to take a deep breath and push her irritation behind her so that she would be able to smile at Kaname and wish him a good night when the time came.

And from the feel of the dying sun, vainly trying to warm her with its last rays, it was almost that time.

She sighed, made herself relax and roll her shoulders, and began to speak above the girls that she was ashamed to call her classmates.

"Please, it is past curfew, return to your dorms immediately," She said loudly to be heard over the squeals and such.

"No way Disciplinary!" A girl screamed from the back of the group, shaking her fist at Sen. Sen felt dread build in her gut as she watched the faces of the girls slowly morph under the influence of that one girl.

If there was one thing Sen dreaded, it was the fearsome mob-mentality that these ninnies so proudly had perfected. She let her hand drop onto Artemis and moved in front of the tall, rod iron gates that loomed to protect the Night Class.

"Why don't you go back to your dorms?"

And so it began.

"Yeah, why do you get to stay?"

The bunch exploded into agitation and unrest, glaring at her.

She felt her pulse begin to beat in her head and she had to close her eyes for a moment to keep her hard won composure.

Sen opened her eyes in shock when she felt the gates behind her begin to open.

_Shit_!

She braced herself as the girls were properly distracted and began to rush forward, their arms outstretched and squealing in delight.

They weren't even stopped by the pained scream that came from the middle. Sen's eyes saw as a girl went down without her classmates noticing and that is when she snapped.

Extending her rod, she kept off the scythe at the end. The ends of the weapon touched the stone walls around her and stopped the girls' charge short.

"What the _hell_ do you think you're _**doing**_?" She snarled, and the girls' eyes widened almost comically. But Sen's temper had finally reached the end of the wick, and she exploded.

"Do you have any idea that one of your _friends_ almost got trampled by you? You should be ashamed of yourselves!" She screamed at them, watching as they stepped back a step in fear.

Her orange eyes blazed as she pierced them with her gaze. Her voice was venomous and she glared death at each of them as she looked them in the eyes one by one. They shifted uneasily, guilt starting to paint their faces.

But Sen wasn't done.

"You are all in violation of the school's non-violence policy," She said slowly, tightening her fists on Artemis.

"You will all be written up and you will get your asses back to your dorms right now, or God help you, you all will be serving detention for the rest of the year." When the group didn't move, she yelled at them.

"What the fuck are you waiting for? Get back to your rooms!" And they all turned slowly, looking at her hesitantly before complying.

"And one of you, get that girl to the nurse!" She called out to their backs as they started to walk away. One of them helped the girl that had almost gotten trampled up, and was helping her limp away when Sen retracted Artemis and tucked it back into its sheath.

Zero came jogging around the building, and Sen gave him an ugly look as she stepped out from in front of the now open gates. Her anger burned inside her like a roaring fire, and she had to take a deep breath and shudder as she let it out so that she wouldn't scream at her friend.

"Next time you leave me to deal with those _harpies_ alone will be the last time you walk away from practice without **burns**." She said slowly, looking him up and down.

He blinked and she turned to the Night Class. Some of them where looking at her with wide eyes, and while Kaname wasn't one of those, she could see his shock in the colors swimming in his chest.

She gave him a tight smile and waved an arm out in front of her.

"Have a good night, and please get to class." She said flatly, watching as they all walked by.

Kaname gave her a slow nod as he went past her, his red eyes carefully blank.

And as she rounded to rant at her friend that had abandoned her before patrol, it was just another night at Cross Academy.


End file.
